Chapter 60 Yinghu Park (Thirteen)
Time goes back to the night before.
A figure walked out of the woods, created an inextinguishable candle, and then turned back into the woods.
Li Mingke saw this scene, but he didn’t understand at all...why?
Why...Ye Sui wants to do this?
Could it be that he has made some discovery that makes him think that keeping the candles burning is beneficial to the players?
Li Mingke was shocked and confused.
He stood there for a while and tried to walk into the park.
The scene in the park changed, turning into a world after midnight.
He saw Ye Sui and Hong Yang running out of the woods and coming to the lawn. Ye Sui was still Ye Sui and had not turned into a monster.
But Li Mingke still couldn't figure it out.
...The "candles" in this copy have an ominous aura no matter how you look at them, and the rules also state that they must blow out the candles lit by the tourist NPCs.
How could an everlasting candle be beneficial to the players?
So, what exactly is the problem?
Li Mingke didn't dare to casually reveal information to the players in the park like he did before. He was afraid of creating another river. If he wanted to convey the information, he had to at least wait until he figured it out himself!
He thought about it and finally decided to try his luck in the world after midnight.
In addition to the candles on the lawn, there are also candles in the woods - candles are the key to this copy, and there must be clues hidden in these things.
Since the copy makes him an outsider who can "see through everything", is there something in the woods whose essence only he can see?
Li Mingke looked down at the time on his phone, 11:43.
The time limit of the copy is 00:25, which corresponds to the time of the previous night is 11:47, which means that he can only stay in the world after midnight for 4 minutes at most and then he should come back.
Through repeated tests, he confirmed that he could only hold out for a maximum of 8 minutes under the pressure of near-death.
There is still time.
...but it may be too late.
Can he successfully run into the woods, find the answer, and get back out of the park within 4 minutes?
Li Mingke pursed his lips.
He doesn't know.
In fact, he was still a little timid and uneasy.
But he was really tired of being a coward... It felt really bad to have to stay where he was and wait for others to save him.
Moreover, he did not want another river, or several more, to appear.
The coward spent this copy of time discovering that the death of others due to his "not trying his best" made him feel more scared and painful than his own death.
He hopes that everyone can successfully complete the dungeon and survive together.
Li Mingke took a deep breath, raised his head, and stepped firmly into the park.
Time jumps to 00:21.
*
At first, the scene he saw was the eight people in the park gathered in front of the game base station, discussing something with serious expressions.
None of these eight people had the monster's head on his neck, so naturally none of them could see him.
Then something strange happened...
As Li Mingke gradually approached them, the scene in the park changed silently again.
Of the eight people, only Xu Dong and Wang Jia were still standing on the lawn; the other six had disappeared like smoke.
Wang Jia waved his hands anxiously in the air, while Xu Dong held a piece of white card with a line of big words written on it.
"Li Mingke, if you see this, hurry back to the park gate. If you go any further, you won't be able to go back! You will die in the world after midnight!"
Li Mingke was shocked.
He looked at the words, and suddenly realized in astonishment -
Could this be the real world after midnight? !
The world after midnight that he had seen before was all fake?!
In an instant, all the blood in my body seemed to rush to my head.
——Then was Lu Bin's transformation into a monster also an illusion created by the copy for him to see? Was Jiang He's death really all due to his misleading? !
Li Mingke's heart was beating violently, his back was stiff, his chest was heaving violently, and he was shrouded in great panic.
The next second, what Lu Chongnian had said to him came to his mind.
"You are in a special position. You can see the truth that is hard for us to see within a limited time, but the copy will definitely mislead you."
Li Mingke clenched his fists and quickly calmed himself down.
No...no!
Jiang He’s death was certainly related to the message he conveyed, but it is still a fact that Lu Bin was replaced by a monster.
The copy fabricated a timeline in which "he had never interfered", and everything on that timeline could not be completely false, because that would make it too easy for them to realize the contradictions.
But that timeline was fabricated after all, so everything that happened on the timeline couldn't be entirely true.
Where is the fake place?
...Ye Sui!
It’s the identity of “Ye Sui”!
Li Mingke looked at the white cardboard held in Xu Dong's hand again, his eyes fixed on the words "You will die in the world after midnight".
Wang Jia and Xu Dong's eyes pierced through him and looked anxiously into the distance.
Li Mingke's body was penetrated by the drizzle and cold wind, like a leaf, floating slowly in the wind.
Swing and swing.
At the moment when the leaves fell silently to the ground——
Li Mingke passed by the two of them and walked resolutely towards the woods.
…
In the grove of Yinghu Park covered by slanting rain, seven people were moving back and forth, but one of their figures was "blocked" by the copy.
What’s amazing is that after making up his mind, Li Mingke’s thoughts became much clearer.
He thought, if he would die in the world after midnight, then even if he got the clues, how would he pass them on to the other eight players?
That’s right—the monster could see him and had tried to attack him!
Does this also mean... that in this timeline, he and the monster can touch each other?
So, he should go find the monster instead?
Just as he was thinking this, Li Mingke glanced at the scene and suddenly stopped.
He looked at the scene in shock.
In a tree hole, two small human skeletons were sitting side by side.
They folded their hands on their thighs like a newlywed couple sitting on a wedding bed. The flames burned to their ankles, and they were still wearing their red cloth shoes.
Their bodies are covered with melted and solidified wax, making them look like a pair of human candles.
...Human candles!
Li Mingke began to tremble.
In this copy, players will turn into candles!
Could this pair of human candles be Lv Bin and Qin Jiang?!
Did Mu Yu and the others find the pair of corpses?
No...probably not...
The eight of them had obviously already completed the couple game, so why did they run into the woods? It was probably because they also realized that something was wrong, and they had not yet cracked the secret of the candle...
In their eyes, this pair of human candles will probably always look like ordinary candles...
Only he can see the truth in the copy...
Li Mingke tried to untie the tangled threads amidst an indescribable feeling of suffocation and fear.
There is something wrong with Ye Sui. He may have been replaced by a monster. So has he also become a human candle?
How is Hong Yang, who is in the same group with him, doing now?
Very strange.
Once a player dies, a new player will be added to the copy.
Ye Sui's accident apparently happened before 11:43, but Li Mingke did not see any new faces entering the copy at that time.
Even now——
Just before he stepped into the grove, he glanced at the sticky notes that Lu Chongnian and the others had left on the branches, and there was no mention of any information related to the new players.
So, why?
Why is it different from Qin Jiang, Lu Bin and Jiang He?
There are no new players joining the dungeon, which should mean that Ye Sui (or Hong Yang in the same group) is not dead yet, right?
But they were just as likely to be replaced by monsters, and just as likely to be turned into human candles—why are they most likely not dead yet?
Li Mingke held his breath and moved closer to the tree hole in front of him - what was the purpose of the copy for him to understand by letting him see these truths?
The flames from two human candles flickered and illuminated his face.
He stared at the two bodies and the flames on them, and then...
His pupils suddenly contracted.
He found that the wax on the two bodies was in a state of melting outwards and then attaching wicks, switching between the two states imperceptibly.
Melting outwards is a normal state for a candle to burn, but what does it mean for wax to attach to the wick?
...reverse combustion?
Reverse combustion?!
Li Mingke focused more on observing.
He found that during the process of burning back and forth and in reverse, the two candles still showed a normal burning state overall.
The wax melts and attaches to the wick, melts and attaches to the wick again, and the final overall trend is still melting.
He moved away from the tree hole, but an idea came to his mind.
——Why does the human body candle show this kind of back-and-forth burning state?
The final fate of these two candles in front of us is to be burned out... Then will there be some human body candles, during the combustion process, the reverse burning state will overwhelm the forward burning state, and the final result is that the wax oil continues to attach to the wick, and the whole candle burns longer and longer... ?
Li Mingke gradually became frightened.
The two candles that Lu Bin and Qin Jiang transformed into obviously burned from head to toe. They should have died the moment the flames burned their heads.
But if it is a reverse candle, then will the candles be the other way around, burning from the player's feet to the top of his head...?
In that case, when the player turns into a candle and starts to burn, it can't be considered death, right? Because their ultimate goal is to burn the whole body, isn't burning the whole body to give them a complete partner? !
Only if they are blown out halfway, so that they cannot successfully burn their entire bodies, and their flames of life are extinguished halfway, can they be considered dead, right... ?
So... that's why it's like this?!
——So something happened to Ye Sui, but the instance has not pronounced him dead until now, and no new players have come in? !
So--
Li Mingke checked the time, 00:22. He turned around with rapid breathing, wanting to go back to the park gate first, but he found that he could hardly breathe!
His heart felt like it was being squeezed by a hand and was about to stop beating. The cold drizzle seemed to have turned into cold sweat, flowing down his body desperately.
He reached out to hold onto the tree trunk, breathing heavily, his eyes wide open.
——The feeling of near death was accelerated?!
In the real timeline after midnight, his active time limit is not even 8 minutes!
He can't get back outside the park, what should he do? !
At this moment, all sounds receded like the tide, and all thoughts, all images, and all actions were slowed down.
...I don't want to die like this.
...I don't want to die uselessly like this.
Li Mingke saw a figure flash by in the woods on the left with his peripheral vision and trembled.
He gritted his teeth, pushed the tree trunk away with force, and staggered over.
He came in front of the monsters, and two monsters pounced on him from the front and back, and he was tied up with a piece of cloth rope.
Then Lu Chongnian and Mu Yu descended from the sky and rescued him.
He struggled to survive and crawled to the side of "Hong Yang", picked up its hand, moved to a candle in the corner, and made the movements of "protecting the flame" and "lifting up".
Mu Yu murmured, "...will it get longer?"
Li Mingke's lungs had been stretched into a bellows.
He panted hard and nodded happily - Mu Yu knew it! He knew it!
"Hong Yang" suddenly grabbed him with his backhand and rushed towards him. He panicked for a moment and heard Lu Zhongnian yelling at him: "Don't resist it!"
Li Mingke suddenly stopped.
…By the way, “Fighting is prohibited in the park.”
When players fight monsters, will they be judged and punished by the dungeon?
So, is the penalty for the copy to make the player die instantly... or to turn the player into a candle?
Candle.
Ah, if it is a reverse candle, if his guesses are correct, then can he live a little longer?
He wants to live longer!
Even if it's just a few seconds or a minute longer.
He wanted to return to everyone's arms.
I want to see everyone leave this copy safely.
think……
Li Mingke tightened his five fingers and held the monster's hand.
At the moment when the monster's mouth was about to bite his neck - he roared and pushed it back hard!
*
With a snap.
Flames ignited from the lighter outlet.
The flames were red on top and blue on the bottom, very psychedelic colors, slowly approaching him in the darkness.
Another cluster.
The fire of his life was ignited.
The flame burned fragilely but hard. This was destined to be a journey with no end, but he finally appreciated the scenery along the way.
He heard low, suppressed cries, and suddenly he felt that the cries seemed to have turned into bursts of drum beats.
——The majestic and high-spirited military drum, boom boom boom, boom boom boom, the indomitable rhythm spreads all the way forward, leading him to deeper darkness and brighter light.
He took off the badge of "coward" from himself and put on the badge of "brave" with shining eyes.
Then, move forward confidently.
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